Saskatoon? It's fun to think about but there's no way it's going to happen. There's no way the NHL has any interest in a healthy and potentially viable Canadian market.
As I've said elsewhere, From what I've read of their interest in Vegas it's obvious Gary and his minions would rather pound sand in the desert.
it's become increasingly clear that Bettman views all revenue streams within all markets and adds them up to derive a total market revenue value. clearly, hamilton for example, would dwarf gate revenues of phoenix, and vegas. no question whatsoever about that. so, why does he insist on keeping/putting teams in the desert? answer: he sees other, non-gate, revenues streams. national, television broadcast content and market coverage seems to be the primary revenue stream here. (it is also the revenue stream that seems to underscore interest in the seattle market as well. gate in seattle will be middling at best.)
the presumption is that placing franchises in markets where people will come to watch games on TV, and that is the driving force here. it is based entirely on the premise that NBC (or whatever media company bids for the new US contract) will pay the NHL more if it includes content from/to viewers in these markets.
im not sure I buy this premise.
clearly, TV viewership in Phoenix and Atlanta are/were abysmal. lost gate revenues (compared to any reasonable Canadian location) are then hoped to be made up by television revenues. but that has simply not been the case. and it is reasonable to assume that NBC (or whoever) would not pay that much more for the national contract whether Phoenix or Altanta were in the mix. neither market does/would generate additional broadcast revenues.
the real question is whether teams in vegas or seattle would be sufficient attraction to NBC (or whoever) to pay the NHL much more for those broadcast rights. assuming that a team in Hamilton would net gate revenues of $25M more each and every year, over and above what Seattle or Vegas would generate ... and that gets tossed into the HRR pot ... that means that non-gate revenues in those US markets would have to match or exceed Hamilton by that same amount to gross the same total. frankly, im not convinced that NBC (or whoever) is willing to pay that much more, over and above what it would otherwise have paid, just to have content/viewers from those markets.
in other words, i doubt that teams in seattle and or vegas would help net greater overall HRR compared to teams in Canadian, gate-crazy, markets like Hamilton. which suggests that this may be more than just money for Bettman.
can i ask, are most folks in seattle following this? is the nhl a close or distant second choice as far as most people in town would like to see? would an nhl (first) team increase the chances of an nba team following? in other words, how much does the nba desire factor in to this bid process, from the owner/bidder or even the city's perspective, or would they all be ignoring that altogether?
